How To Get Everything Done And Still Have Time To Play

Hey, homeschoolers! I recently read Mark Forster's book How to Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play and I absolutely loved it. It's been another of his books that has been life-changing for me. In this episode, I want to share principles from the book that can help you accomplish your homeschool and other goals this year and have plenty of free time too. Watch on YouTube Sponsor NOW Programs for students with special needs. Defining Everything How can we possibly get everything done? We can't. Mr. Forster is very clear that by everything, he means everything we have decided we can and must do. Most of us are trying to do way too much--too many curricula, too many activities, even too many fun things. Until we limit the number of tasks and projects and commitments we take on, we will continue to struggle. With that caveat out of the way, let's talk about the struggle to get everything done. I would say that all my life I have had the same issue: I do a good job accomplishing a few top priorities, but everything else seems to get put on the back burner until it becomes a crisis. For example, when I create a task plan for the week, quarter, or year, writing curriculum like Training Aliens or preparing for a Great Homeschool Convention is the top priority. Publishing this podcast is the next highest priority. But what about social media? That gets pushed aside along with website changes and home projects and I don't even want to talk about taxes! I have a feeling you can relate. Approaches for Getting Everything Done For you, maybe it's math and English that are prioritized, meaning that science experiments, foreign language, or art get put off. I've shared before about loop scheduling being a great option for this. You have a day or a time block that you assign two or more activities to. Then you loop or rotate through them in order. If last time you did a science experiment, then today you'd do foreign language. Theme days are another way of dealing with these lower priorities. If you never get around to decluttering your art supplies, you might dedicate Saturdays to decluttering. Or you dedicate the last day of the month to deep cleaning. These approaches have worked for me for a time. But when I missed enough of my looping or theme days, I would usually determine that I needed to give up the activity altogether and focus on my top priorities. The negative cycle would begin again. Enter Mark's book, which sets the stage with a fairy tale. Story-based inspiration? I'm here for it. This fairy tale has the hero, Hans, seeking wisdom for getting things done so he can focus on his top priority--winning the princess's hand in marriage. I found myself relating to Hans as he tried many recommended approaches to getting things done. They worked for a while and then led to the same problem of lower priority tasks becoming a crisis. Poor Hans struggled to be successful AND win the princess. The Get Everything Done Approach Enter Mark Forster as our wise guide. He suggests an approach that reminds me of what I had recommended years ago in a blog post I calle...